Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1887-11-19

ever succeed in getting close to natures
great North American heart by studying
her habits at a S25 german? l trow not.
Moreover, every one who studies the his
tory of our great poets and orators will
trOw likewise. Lord Tennyson wrote bet
ter things before he tried TO divide bis at
tention between writing poety and being
a lord. So i say that from yeomanry ire
quently spring the boys whose rare old
rural memories float in upon and chasten
and refine their after lives even when fame
COMES and fills them full of themselves
and swells their aching heads as they
swOop gaily across the country in a special
car.
do not go as far IS some OF the friends
of Shakespeare and say that, while he was
a lovely character and great actor, Bacon
was a ham. do not say that, for Bacon
has his good points.
The thing that has done more to injure
Shakespeare in the eyes of the historian
than aught else, perhaps, wa his seeming
neglect of his wife. But we should con-
slider both sides of the question before we
pass Judgment. The H~athaways were
queer people, and Anue was unusually so.
Her father snubbed her in his will, Just as
her husband did, which shows that Mrs.
Shakespeare was not highly esteemed even
by her parents. The brief notice which
Anne received in these two wills means a
good deal, for there is nothing quite 81
thoroughly unanswerable as d probate
snub.
Shakespeare in his own will gave to his
wife hiS secOnd-best bed, and that was all,
When we remember that it was a bed that
! sagged in the middle, and that it operated
by means of q bed cord which had to be
! frightened and turned up twice n week, and
that the a~uger-holes in the bedstead seemed
ever to mutely appeal for more powder from
Peysia's great powder magazine, We will be
| forced to admit that William did not pas
sionately love his wife.
| know that Shakespeare has beer
severely criticised by the press for leaV'
Ing his family at Stratford while hi
himself lived in London, only yis
ting home occasionally, but | am con
WINGED that ne found they could live cheap
er in that way. Help in the house was
very high at that time in London, aud the
| intelligence offices were doing n very large
business without giving very much intelli
gercc. Friends of his told him that it wa:
not only impossible 10 get enough help IL
\ the homes of London, but that there were
hardly enough servants TO prevent a panic
in the employment bureaus. Several offices
were in fact compelled to shut down for g
half day at q time, using the limited
stock in the forenoon and the other in the
afternoon.
Shakespeare was q perfect gentleman,
having been made so by the Herdids col
Ieue, which invested his father with coat
armOr. The coat armor made q gentleman
| of the elder Shakespeare, and as Williams
mother was already 4 gentleman under the
| code, William became one also both on his
| fathers and his mothers side. Of course,
all this is mere detail,'aRd is dull and unin'
terestiug, but | refer to it to SHOW that
! those who have read things in Shakes
peare's works that they did not like aud
who, therefore, say that he was no gentle
man, DO the bard a great injustice.
| think | like Shakespeare's e~Npurgated
poems best, and I often wish that he had
confined himself entirely to that kind. II
| had q son who seemed 20 lean toward,
poesy and felt like ~twangiug his Tyre now
and then | would advise him to write ex'
purgated poems exclusively.
do not say that Shakespeare was the
author of his own works and it would not
look well 10 me to set up my opinion in
opposition TO that of scholars, experts and
| Savants who have had more advantages
than | have, for I would never take ad
vantage ~OfanyOYc, bat | say that somehow
the impression has crep: into the papers
that he was a pretty good little ~playwriter
and | am glad that Mr.. Childs has, had q
testimonial made and sent over to .ngland
that will show an appreciation at least OF
his ability to keep before the people.
1t will be noticed by the alert and keen,
scented literateur that | have carefully
avoided treadiug Gu the tail of Mr.. Dou'
nelly's cipher. Being rather q poor math
ematician anyway, l will not introduce
the cipher at this time, but l will Say that
! although the whole thing happened about
! 800 years ego and has now nearly passed
out Of my mind, to the 6est of my recol'
lection Shakespeare, though he was the
son of o buckwheater aud though he mar
ried his wife with a poetic license, and
though he left his family at Stratford
rather than take them to live in a London
fat, wrote the most Of his plays with the
assistance OF an expurgatOr who was out Of
the city most all OF the time.
I cannot show Shakespeare's ready wit
better at this time than by telling of his
first appearance on the stage as l remem'
Der it. He came quietly before the foot
lights with q roll OF carpet under one arm
and q tack hammer under the other. In
those days 1t was customary to nail down
stage carpets, and while doing so Shake
as we called hiur then, knocked the nail
off his left thumb, whereupon he received
an ovation from the audience. Some men
would have been ratified and would have
called up ~ We say. but Shakespeare
was always ready to please his friends oil
respond to an encore, 50, putting his righ'
thumb mp against q large painted rock IL
"a mountain scene, lie Obliged by knocking
OIL the other thumb nail.
Shakespeare wrote the poem called I've
nus and AdOnis" during the absence OF hi
expurgatOr and sent IL 10 the editor of thu
Stratford Appeal, who deadheaded the
paper to him for \ year and told him tina
he wished he would write up any othe1
gossip that might come TO his knowledg'
in that part OF the county, especially if /
promised to be so spicy.
Shakespeare was one ofthe few English
men who never visited this country 70
two weeks for the purpose of writing al
eight pound book on his impressions o
America.
Advice tn Mothers,
NJ. U,-sln-,s ConAhinu Germ IN